PICTORIAL

PICTORIAL

Time has come for LTTE to end the war that it is not winning

by Col. R. Hariharan

The moment of truth appears to have arrived for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Its fall could not have been more dramatic; a few days ago a few thousand people of Jaffna, on whose behalf the LTTE says it is fighting, wanted it to release the civilian population held as a human shield in a small area in the northeastern corner of the Northern Province.

Far from saving the lives of over 2.5 lakh Tamils there as it claims to be seeking to do, the LTTE has put them in the line of fire that is directed against itself.

There were two other jolts for the LTTE. In Chennai, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham leader and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi reiterated that he does not support the LTTE that had weakened the Tamil resistance.

The European Union, Japan, Norway, and the U.S., the four co-chairs of the Oslo peace process 2002, called upon the LTTE to lay down weapons and surrender after accepting the amnesty offer put forth by the Sri Lanka government and prevent further loss of civilian life. It is an irony of fate that in 2002 the very same co-chairs had tacitly accepted the LTTE as the spokesman of the Tamil population at peace talks.

Unfortunately, instead of vigorously pursuing the objective of getting the best devolution package through the talks, the LTTE focussed on building its armed strength with the trappings of a government — its own police, judiciary and administration. It did not matter that the LTTE had to leave to the Sri Lanka government the tasks of providing health care and supplying essential goods for the people living in areas under LTTE control.

Even while speaking of its own legitimacy to take over the administration of the north and the east under the interim self- governing authority proposal, the LTTE’s pistol groups went around killing scores of people, including Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and a General of the Sri Lanka Army.

When the tsunami came on Boxer Day 2005, thousands of Tamils perished. Their plight touched the whole world and money came pouring in from everywhere. It is true that the Sri Lanka government should share the blame for its failure to implement its agreement with the LTTE with respect to tsunami relief.

But even as the LTTE was complaining loudly about that, it was trying to strike deals worth millions of dollars with illegal arms dealers abroad to procure advanced missile systems and other weapons. This came to light during a sting operation carried out by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation a year later.

The LTTE enjoyed an unprecedented level of support and goodwill among the people of Tamil Nadu during 1983. Despite its record of killing Tamil militant leaders of repute such as Sri Sabharatnam of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and hundreds of cadres of other groups including the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), the Prabakaran mystique persisted and many Tamils ignored his seeming character aberrations.

However, the LTTE started dissipating its goodwill in India when it colluded with its “sworn Sinhala enemy,” President Ranasinghe Premadasa, to get the Indian forces off its back and send them out of Sri Lanka. However, the LTTE did not use its newfound bonhomie with the President for the benefit of Tamils. Instead, it killed Premadasa after carrying out a bloodbath of thousands of cadres of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). Their only sin was that unlike the LTTE, they had accepted the Indo-Sri Lanka accord.

The LTTE relentlessly pursued the members of the EPRLF leadership who had taken refuge in India and killed many of them in Chennai. The final act of killing Rajiv Gandhi, the man who had proactively intervened in Sri Lanka to help Tamils, also killed Prabakaran’s equation with India. No amount of political or parochial rhetoric is going to repair the damage done to the LTTE’s image, particularly in Tamil Nadu, by that act.

Its failing fortunes in the present war have pushed the LTTE back to the position in which it was in 1987 — under mortal danger from the Sri Lanka security forces. It was India that rescued the LTTE then. Now that the LTTE is fighting for survival once again, its propaganda machine is asking the people of India to save Tamils in Sri Lanka. There is no sign of contrition on Prabakaran’s part for killing Rajiv Gandhi — which would have been the logical first step for mending fences with India.

But the LTTE, it seems, works on its own logic. Otherwise how do we understand its broadside against India even at this, its hour of need? The pro-LTTE TamilNet quotes an article saying, “It is an open secret that the present Indian Establishment, run by Sonia Congress, is waging its own proxy war in the island of Sri Lanka, concurrent to Colombo’s war against Tamil Nationalism. In its frustration arising from its incapability of achieving anything positively, India is not only heading for maintaining perpetual trouble in Sri Lanka, but also is inviting turmoil to a part of its own country.”

Prabakaran seems to have forgotten his own statement on India in his last Heroes Day message wherein he said: “Our people always consider India as our friend. They have great expectations that the Indian superpower will take a positive stand on our national question.” Is it all changed now when the LTTE talks of “India inviting turmoil to a part of its own country”?

The LTTE has to come to terms with the reality all over the world now. The world has lost its patience with terrorism. Most nations consider the methods used by organisations like the LTTE to be terror tactics. That was one of the main reasons for the LTTE’s downslide in the present war.

The time has come for the LTTE to give up war. It has to help the people rebuild their lives shattered by 25 years of war. Already hundreds of civilians have died in the artillery bombardment because the LTTE has not made up its mind to end the war that it is not winning. Prabakaran should act now and free them.

The way out for the LTTE is clear: Prabakaran should remove the fetters on the leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), its political proxy in the Sri Lankan Parliament, and allow them to make meaningful contributions to bringing about peace. The LTTE probably knows that its final act will be over with an offensive launched by five to six divisions of the Sri Lanka security forces on its redoubt. Before that happens, the LTTE can do one act of goodwill by letting free the hapless population it is holding today.

(Colonel (retd) R. Hariharan served as head of intelligence with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka during the period 1987-1990. E-mail: colhari@yahoo.com )

Some diaspora Tamils groups (eg. Tamils for Obama)have been hoping to change the unhealthy international environment for LTTE with the election of Obama. I remember that Vaiko presented a book written by him to Obama during the primary season. Some even speculated that GOSL is speeding up war to avoid repurcussions in an Obama world.
Alas! Their last hope has perished. Today's world has no sympathy for terrorists or who support/tolerate terrorism to achieve political goals, how legitimate they may be.
Here's the full letter of President Obama to President Rajapakse on independance day:

"Dear Mr. President:

As the people of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan origin around the world celebrate National Day on February 4, I send my warmest greetings and wishes to you on behalf of the people of the United States.

The United States values its enduring friendship with the people of Sri Lanka. I hope that the coming year will see advancement of our shared beliefs in democracy, liberty, pluralism, and respect for human rights. Our governments together can work to foster peace, prosperity, and stability throughout Sri Lanka.

As the people of Sri Lanka celebrate National Day, they should know that they have a friend and partner in the United States.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama"

Even a change in the government in India will not help the Tigers as it will only increase the influence of Jayalalitha, who is an enemy of VP.

But VP still has a chance to retain his super hero status and turn defeat into victory by surrendering to ICRC and stopping the war saying (falsely)that he sacrificed his life to save the lives of Civilians. Such a move will be a blow to govt. whose target is annihilating LTTE. But luckily for GOSL, VP has proved too many times that he is not a visionary leader capable of grasping such opportunities that will help achieve 'Tamil liberation'.

DO you thing after 3 years experiance in Srilanka, Srilankan government give good solution to Tamils? After more than Hundred thousands of tamils die, How tamils give up fighting without any good solution? Are you tamil? I thing Jaffna people forced to do that by epdp.Do you remember when you were in srilanka what you did by Three star? Three star(eprlf, Endlf and telo)forced to tamils (People and Student)to strike against ltte.That time was most of the tamils didnot like to against ltte. I dont know you agree or not.you had a margy government there. You(indian)guide three stars to give forced traing to youths thats why tamils national army created. I hate that.

The funeral procession of Muthukumaran where Eelam flags and Prabhakaran's photos were openly carried and the slogans raised against Central and state governments and in support of Tigers atleast must have opened the eyes of people like Mr.Hariharan. Does the upsurge in Tamilnadu show that the Tigers have lost their support base or sympathisers? It was true that after the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, there was loss of sympathy for them. But time has passed and in the changed situation,mishandling of this issue by the Indian government probably on the advice of people like Hariharan is making Tamil youth to turn sympathetic towards Tigers. Indian government should seriously reconsider its policy of helping Srilankan army & government or else long term repurcussions to the country may not be good.

This article is informatory and enlightening to those including myself who hitherto looked at the Tamil issue with a blinkered mind. Very seldom have I seen an article critical of the LTTE. Our silence was treated as an endorsement of their inhumane acts on people of all ethnicity. The tragedy is, instead of LTTE reaping the harvests of the seeds that they sowed, the poor Wanni people are now reaping. Sometimes we see and yet psyche our minds not to see it.

India needs to invade the NE of Sri Lanka with the backing of the Co-chairs to (a)deal with the humanitarian crisis (b)to deliver VP & PA to the Indian judiciary. India has the mandate to invade under the Indo-Lanka pact; no UN approval necessary.

Long term solution? The NE needs to become part of the Indian Union. The GOSL will never treat the Tamils as the equal citizen of Sri Lanka.

Not surprised to hear Hariharan's frustration in this article. The suffering Tamils created LTTE to fight the State terrorrism. The IC (particularly India) miscerably failed in convincing the Tamil community to change their leadership. Even at this juncture (and in the future) the silent voices of oppressed Tamils are with LTTE, even though they do not agree with violence. The State terror makes LTTE all valid. Tamil net is correct to state SL is fighting India's war. The Indian support to SL is not a secret. The world Tamils understand the helpless nature of Jaffna Tamils, who live under the Terrorist state military boot were ordered to participate by the State / paramilitary organized protests against LTTE. Other wise, Hariharan, why there are no mass demonstrations outside the Terrorist state controlled areas by Tamils, not talking about even wannni, but the world capitals? Can you explain?

Also, the Co-Chairs statement asking the LTTE to surrender must have been a blunder made by low level Co-Chair staff. The statement followed the Co-Chair's blunder, made by Madam Hillary and David Miliband refering to sensible constructive parts of Co-Chair's statment and ignoring the insensitive and ignorent parts is slefevident that the highlevel staff realized the stupidity in the Co-Chair statement. - I wonder, why you have chosed to focus on that insensitive / ignorent / destructive parts of the Co-chair statement?

If you are truth to your words and to yourself, and want to see the real/total destruction of LTTE, there is an easy way. Ask for UN intervention in SL, no not the Indian govt/IPKF like last time to come its proactive own solution(As the TN Chielf also stated recently, we ,India, should not push our solution, 13th amendment on SL Tamils). Then allow the People of North East to determine their future by way of UN referendum, conducted, supervised and underwritten by UN/world powers. This way, the 1977 mandate provided by Tamils, and spearheaded by Tigers can be replaced by this new UN referendum. Whatever the out come of this referendum, implement it with iron fist. Believe me, the LTTE will be destroyed by Tamils without spilling a drop of Tamils from that point onwards. But, are you or your govt is sincere to SL Tamils?

I always read your article with utmost interest.
Most of the dispora like me still believe that ltte will start their offensive. hope you know the areas which are still under ltte control. 20km sea and adjoining very thick jungle. do you think gosl will capture this very soon. gosl has not so far found any significant arms cache. please comment.

would it be possible for the sri lankan government to win the war if india wasn't supporting it? the indians are on the ground fighting alongside sl army..if it
isn't for all the fire power and technical help from the air would they win the war? rajiv gandi atempted on pirapakaran life many times..is it not even when prapaharan atempted on rajiv life except that prapaharan was successful. rajiv started the killing spree of innocnet tamil civilians and their leader...not to mention the rape of many tamil women...rajiv brought the curse of people on him and his death is justified..it is a revenge for the atrocities committed on his order and again the revenge for it is justified...no way the indians or sri lankan singalese are better fighter than tamils..it is just superior fire power and large number of personnels...do you think the people and what they have deep in their heart for freedom will simply varnish? india or sri lanka cannot sustain the war for long time..and the tamil will be rebellious at time to time...by the way are you still on the intelligence department's pay roll?

Diaspora will never tell Prabhakaran or the LTTE to surrender. Why? BEcause they really have nothing to lose by cheering till the very (Bloody) End. It also clearly illustrates the reality that the Diaspora, who are disconnected with the real suffering of the Tamils in the North, don't care about their brothers and sisters in the Fighting zones. Its all Ideology for these people in the Diaspora. Loss of life is not important to them, in order to get Eelam they actually need for there to be Tamil Civilian casualties. THis way they can take the pictures of the Dead Bodies, and plaster them over their own propaganda websites and say that the Sinhalese are committing GENOCIDE... Without dead bodies they cannot say that. To tell the diaspora to ask the LTTE to surrender to save Tamil Lives is pointless, because secretly they want as many Tamil deaths as possible to be able to build a case for their Eelam Political strategy. It is sick, but it is the dirty truth. Tamil Diaspora activists don't care about Tamil civilians in the North. That is the Fact of the matter.

Truly, if there was one man who presided over the complete destruction of the paradise that was Sri Lanka it was Prabakaran. True, there was Sinhala Nationalism, Tamil Nationalism and several bouts of ethnic violence before that. But the damage to inter communal relations were not irrevokable. Consider the situation of Tamils just prior to 1983. They had language rights, being able to be educated in their mother tongue until University. Every single sign, every government publication, State Radio, TV broadcasts were made in all 3 languages etc. etc., They dominated the Engineering faculties and Medical faculties of the Universities, they held the highest possitions in government including Secretary to the Treasury, His deputy, Secretary to the President, Senior diplomats, Attorney General, Chief of Police and several of his deputies etc. The biggest business organisations and industries in the Country were Tamil owned or Tamil run.

What was the single action commited by one man that changed all that? It was the blowing up of the 13 Soldires by Prabakaran. So its fair to say he controled every event in the descent to what we live under today. I dont mean to downplay the role of the murderous Sinhalese mobs who bit the bait and ran riot spreading carnage all over the island. But if we can go back in time and undo one single action commited by one man that would have averted so much missery I would say it would be Prabakaran's attack on the 13 soldires. The actions of the Sinhalese after that incident opened up a rift that is now near impossible to heal.

Thousands of Sinhalese and Tamils through their attitudes and actions have aggravated the communal issue. But nulifying one such person's thoughts or deeds would have been insufficient to prevent what has ensued - bar one person's deeds. And that is Prabakaran's

LTTE has briought ud to the plight of "HUMPTY DUMPTY" WHO SAT ON A WALL......
THEY NEVER MAINTAINED A RESPECTABLE IMAGE NEEDED FOR AN ORGANISATION TO RECEIVE INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION AND RESPECT.NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO THEIR CRIES NOW AND WOULD LIKE TO SALVAGE THEM. LET US RECALL THE OF THE BRHAMIN AND THE CAGED TIGER OR THE ARABIAN AND THE CAMEL STORIES. THIS WAS THE FATE OF OTHER TAMIL GROUPS WHO FOUGHT THE SYSTEM WITH THE SAME OBJECTIVE AS THAT OF THE LTTE. THEY WERE ONCE BROTHERS IN ARMS

You served as head of intelligence with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka during the period 1987-1990 At peak, there were more than 125 000 IPKF in North and East. How many of them were in sinhala area? As far as I knew there was only one camp in Ampara Airport.
IPKF came only to disarm LTTE with a help of TELO and EPRLF and not to enforce the peace accord.LTTE had no choice but get the help of Premadasa to send you home. Premadasa helped LTTE because he feared you will stay permanently and interfere with internal politics. And he had other plans to face LTTE.
Name one neighboring country which really love India ?It is like sleeping next to an elephant. What happened to us ( North and East Tamils) by India is a good example. We are being pulverized with your help.
Sri-Lanka was on China side during 1960-61 China- India war. Srimavo-Shastri pact was signed in 1964 to make her happy and 600,000 Tamils from Upcountry had to return home. Still what happened? During India /Pakistan warin1970 ,Sri-Lanka was on Pakistan side allowing Pakistan Air force to refuel in Srilanka.
You are helping Sri-lanka to crush the democratic aspirations of Tamils to liberate their nation but history will repeat and Sri-Lanka will show its true colour very soon.
The LTTE still enjoys an unprecedented level of support and goodwill among the people of Tamil Nadu and Tamils living abroad. The recent rallies all over Tamil Diaspora clearly demonstrate the support.
We may perish as a nation but we will not forget what India did to us .History will record heroes and traitors.
No Indian Who served in IPKF has moral authority to advice us

I'm a regular Srilankan tamil reader of your articles I'm living permanently in New Zealand.Thanks for your valuable articles for this site.I'm really happy to read this article.I don't thing the foolish LTTE will agree to release the tamil civilians. Overall rather than telling the correct thing the tamilnet like tamil medias are misguiding the people. But the tamil people are not silly to believe their lies.The LTTE's last moments are approaching I think.

Personally, I do not believe we have seen the real age of guerilla warfare. As the technology improves even further, and becomes cheaper, we will see innovative new attacks on the part of groups like LTTE. For example, imagine a nano-size bomb or similar explosive device. Imagine a bomb whose mode of tranmission was purely EM radiation. The very likely possibility of a chemical/biological attack is the number one headache of many a Western right now. As of right now, some of these ideas may seem somewhat far-fetched. Nevertheless
I would not discount such possibilities. When they become a reality, we will see a real revolution in politics. It will not be so easy for the "co-chairs" to roll a dice and decide who gets to be a terrorist on Monday and a Freedom Fighter on Friday. As for the present, consider it a temporary lapse. The fascist republic of Sri Lanka should not expect to have peace any time soon.

col, As a srilankan tamil. IPKF and srilankan army did enough sins. As tamil
we have witnessed many atrocities (mass graves,eg: chemani, many thousand rapes).
what happen in jaffna teaching hospital in 1989 deepavali.sixty innocent staff were killed.which including consultant, senior doctors died

Tamil community is well aware of all IPKF crimes. As an inteligent officer
you know this,and you were part of this.

I personally beleived when Indian forces came that they had the genuine intent of helping the Srilankan tamils.

I was living in Jaffna and I was only 13 years old then. Our family was nearly killed by the Indian army, they came to our house asked all of us to come out. My father, mother, my old grandparents and my four siblings (Im the eldest and the youngest was only 3 years old) They very well know that we are innocent civilians, they threatened us and they made us stand in a row and raise both our hands up. Then two of them loaded their machine guns and were about to fire at us. But thankfully his superior came from nowhere stopped him from firing at us.

Even now this haunts me, a few of my relatives, innocent men, women and children and elderly were mercilessly murdered by the Indian army knowing very well that they were innocent civilians.

Where were you when all these were happening? Was this your adivse to them during that time?

Alex,
"how the 1500 LTTE cadres the SL army says is left can prevent 250000 civilians from leaving whilst also fighting 50000 soldiers?"
Govt. AGA's are now saying that no. of civilians trapped is arround 120000. Even if it is 250000:1500 (167:1), One gunman surely can frighten a thousand unarmed civilians (most of them are children, women & elderly).
It is not a secret that LTTE did not allow free movement of people under their control in to govt. areas even during ceasefire time. People had to leave their relatives as sureties if they are leving temporarily. By the way about 3 million Tamils live in government controlled areas, so why should others be scared to come if they are allowed to by LTTE?ood for
Anyway I pray for the lives of those civilians, a victory soathed with civilian blood won't help GOSL.

Recently BBC,Aljazeera & CNN have given top priority to the developments in SL and there were many exaggerations too.

But it is high time for Tamil diaspora to understand that false propaganda will not fool the IC.

Following speech made by Dr. Charles Tennock on behalf of the supporters of the resolution on Sri Lanka at EU parliament stand as a testimony for this fact.

"Sri Lanka's bloody civil war seems finally to be coming to a conclusion. The LTTE, which has been blacklisted by the EU as a terrorist organisation, must now surely lay down its arms and surrender. The EU and other co-chairs have urged the LTTE to do so. The LTTE's response will show us whether it really has the best interests of Tamils at heart. The LTTE is using its front organisations in the EU to maximum propaganda effect and raising money by extortion internationally.

Some LTTE militants may try to seek asylum in Europe. Throughout this ferocious 26 year civil war the LTTE has pioneered atrocious terrorist tactics such as suicide bombings that are now used in many other parts of the world. The Sri Lanka Army has therefore had to deploy all means at its disposal to counteract this brutal insurgency but it's clear that the casualty figures have been exaggerated and some e.g. the AP story of 300 civilians killed has now been withdrawn as the supposed author subsequently denied authorship.

The death of civilians in a war zone is tragic whenever and wherever it occurs. Clearly the Sri Lankan Armed Forces cannot claim an unblemished record, but they have not sought to exploit civilians and put them in harm's way like the LTTE has done. If the war really is soon to be over, it is essential that Sri Lanka turns its attentions to post-conflict disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration. The marginalisation of Tamils at the expense of the majority Sinhalese needs to be addressed in an urgent and permanent manner to ensure a stable and sustainable multi-ethnic society with regional devolution. The EU should also ensure resources are at Sri Lanka's disposal to support post-conflict development. Although we should support the Government's offer of amnesty for the majority of LTTE, it is vital that no-one responsible for the most serious war crimes is allowed to get away with impunity."

I think the army would have achieved the present result with or without indian help. colonel hari says ltte should dissapear, albeit in different words but message is the same. let us say that happens. then colonel what next.you indians are supposed to be intelligent people with space ships etc, so your policymakers must be surely having a vision for the next 10 years at least for the indian ocean region.after all srilanka is geographically like a bullet aimed at your vulnerable southern ass. now you have achieved the first step of making pillayan the chief minister of the eastern province. now the second step is to make douglas devananda the chief minister of the northen province.both are eminently suitable for the positions being former rocket scientists etc.then your policymakers will get a ego massage thinking that rajapakse is your puppet and following all your "advice". now we fastforward to 2020.pillayan gone. douglas gone.rajapakse gone.current indian policymakers gone.china gratest superpower in the world.chinese warships permenently in trincomalee and hambantota harbours.Indian ocean indian only in name bristling with chinese warships protectingthe oil supply from the gulf.excellent relations between china and srilanka with china giving plenty of aid to srilanka. srilankan leaders having a good laugh about the indian donkeys who were taken for a good ride.Your cricketers also would have underestimated srilanka at one time thinking how can a 20 million country ever beat a thosand million one.count the number of times india has been beaten. the moral of the story srilanka will never be indias puppet,indian policymakers have never lived in srilanka for a sufficient period of time to understand the srilankan especially the sinhalese psych and how headstrong and stubborn they are. they assume that they are the same as indians. big mistake.

Dear Colnel, I admit many are the political blunders and subversive killings committed by LTTE. But you are too one sided for a person committed to peace with justice. The Tamil militancy was sparked off by Sinhala Chuvinism. The internecine killings of each other among the groups cannot be blamed on ltte alone. POTE provided front line attack force by becoming cheap mercenaries. EPRLF accepted the INO SL accord and made a mockery of it as SL did not facilitate the Govt. They also provided logistic support to the Deep Penetration Unit of the SL Govt. Many who do not support the LTTE and who are not keen on dividing the country would still not agree with your suggestion that LTTE should surrender for they know there goes with that surrender any chance for justice for the Tamils in Sri Lanka. So please do not try to mislead people. I also know many crimes committed by our IPKF. Peace lovers should transcend mistaken patriotism and narrow nationalism. Dhyanchand Carr

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